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Cable’s efforts on GKN are in vain

Alistair Osborne

Poor Sir Vince Cable. Was it only on Friday that the Lib Dem leader was springing heroically into action — and from the Sainsbury’s car park in Hampton, no less?

Within 90 minutes of the news that Melrose had launched a £7 billion tilt at GKN, the MP for Twickenham had fired off his press release, explaining he’d be writing to the business secretary, Greg Clark, “asking him to intervene and ensure this damaging takeover does not happen”. True, there hadn’t actually been a takeover — the sort of detail easily overlooked by an ex-business secretary — but there was no missing the speed of his response. And nothing to do, of course, with any pre-statement tip-off. Not even from Lord Fox, the Lib Dem business spokesman…